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GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs Radeon HD 4890 1GB

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 features a GPU core speed of 540 MHz, and the 512 MB of DDR2 memory is set to run at 400 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 32 Stream Processors, 16 TAUs, and 8 ROPs.

Compare that to the Radeon HD 4890 1GB, which has a clock speed of 1000 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 975 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is made up of 800(160x5) SPUs, 40 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 47 Watts
Radeon HD 4890 1GB 190 Watts
Difference: 143 Watts (304%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 4890 1GB should in theory perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4890 1GB 124800 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 12800 MB/sec
Difference: 112000 (875%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4890 1GB is a lot (approximately 363%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

Radeon HD 4890 1GB 40000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 8640 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 31360 (363%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 4890 1GB is much (approximately 270%) better at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon HD 4890 1GB 16000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 4320 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 11680 (270%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

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GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4890 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 Radeon HD 4890 1GB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year April 2007 Apr 2, 2009
Code Name G84 RV790 XT
Memory 512 MB 1024 MB
Core Speed 540 MHz 1000 MHz
Memory Speed 800 MHz 3900 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 47 watts 190 watts
Bandwidth 12800 MB/sec 124800 MB/sec
Texel Rate 8640 Mtexels/sec 40000 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 4320 Mpixels/sec 16000 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 32 800(160x5)
Texture Mapping Units 16 40
Render Output Units 8 16
Bus Type DDR2 GDDR5
Bus Width 128-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 80 nm 55 nm
Transistors 289 million 959 million
Bus PCIe x16 PCIe 2.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4890 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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